Hey, I've been keeping a saltwater tank for about 2 years now, and after one year, I decided to start keeping invertebrates. I have great water quality because the acropora seem to be looking great. Then I thought that I could keep a shrimp, so I tried. After about 10 or so shrimp deaths after about a week each, I gave up for a while, but I just recently bought a scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp, I drip acclimated it with a slow drip for about 2 hours, and added it to my tank. After a week now, it seems a little bit "jumpy" at different times. I might just be from avoiding the fish, but im afraid it was somehow shocked, and might not recover. It is a female with eggs, and doesn't seem to be hurt. (e.x. it has all of its antennas, legs, and claws) The ph is 8.2-8.3, iodine at regular levels, calcium around 400, KH(Hardness) at 8.8, Alkalinity at 3.12, salt level at 1.023, and the temperature at 80 degrees Farenheit. I have 45 lbs of live rock, 40 lbs of live sand, various soft and sps corals. There are four fish, 1 pacific sailfin tang, 1 ocellaris clown, 1 dispar anthias, and 1 yellow watchman goby. Any experience of advice would be appreciated.
Problems with scarlet cleaner shrimp
- Thread starter reefwizz
- Start date
kar93
Active member
calcium is better at around 450, salinity could be raised a little to 1.026 but be very carefuly if you do so as shrimps are very sensitive to salt changes. If you do raise it then i would recommend putting the shrimp in a bucket and when youve raised the salinity drip acclimate it again.
Reefynewby
New member
i find that shrimps are very sensitive to the initial acclimation, but once introduced, after a few days become quite hardy. I had a peppermint that came on LR and was out of water for an hour, he's doing great. i too, spent a fortune on cleaners. I made the mistake of buying 6 from the same store. DON'T DO THAT! try buying cleaners from other stores. i bought 2 from 2 different stores, and they're both doing great.
ALSO: just a little pointer i find. Since most stores like to keep the salinity a little lower than we do (ie: 1.020-1.021) it increases your chances of survival even more to start at a lower salinity when you introduce them, and then raise your salinity back up, as they become quite hardy.
finally, i find that the only sure sign of shrimp death for me, is indeed, a state of shock. When they freeze and don't move, i let them sit, but in the longrun, there's no coming back from the shock position. If that has happened to your shrimp, i'm sorry you may want to try another if anything.
but gl with your shrimp
ALSO: just a little pointer i find. Since most stores like to keep the salinity a little lower than we do (ie: 1.020-1.021) it increases your chances of survival even more to start at a lower salinity when you introduce them, and then raise your salinity back up, as they become quite hardy.
finally, i find that the only sure sign of shrimp death for me, is indeed, a state of shock. When they freeze and don't move, i let them sit, but in the longrun, there's no coming back from the shock position. If that has happened to your shrimp, i'm sorry you may want to try another if anything.
but gl with your shrimp
Aquarist007
New member
I would suggest you put all new purchases into quarantine for 4-6 weeks.
As reefynewby suggested LFS's keep their salinity at much lower levels then our tanks. So it is a little easier to change the salinity in the qt tank and gradually bring it up to the main tank.
If you have lost that many shrimp then you might have a predator in the tank that hitch hiked in on the live rock.---a pistol shrimp??
As reefynewby suggested LFS's keep their salinity at much lower levels then our tanks. So it is a little easier to change the salinity in the qt tank and gradually bring it up to the main tank.
If you have lost that many shrimp then you might have a predator in the tank that hitch hiked in on the live rock.---a pistol shrimp??
spinninmidwater
New member
well yeah, i keep quite a number of shrimps and i too find that after a proper acclimation, they are pretty hardy. i made a short acclimation (1hr) once for my first scarlet skunk a year ago and it froze at the spot once in the tank and didn't make it thru the nite. so from then on, i always acclimate them for at least 2.5hr. scarlet skunks are very shy and timid. mine always hide in rockwork and seldom come out in the open to grap any uneaten food unless the food is near where they hide so i think it's better to target feed them. anyways as long as your shrimp is eating. it should be ok. good luck
Grins
New member
Not mine, they like humans better than fish it seems. One is a huge pig, I have to feed it whenever feeding the rbta and LPS or he'll steal their food everytime.
To the OP, I had trouble with my first 2 shrimp. I realized it wasn't the acclimation causing me trouble but the source. I changed that, and I now acclimate by testing the water from the LFS to compare it to mine. If the water parameters are very close (as they are with one LFS) I sometimes don't even drip acclimate but just add water every 5 minutes or so for about 45 minutes. A bigger difference of course gets a longer drip acclimation. I've had very good results with that with the the inverts I bought since changing the original source.
